a. The Field of the Invention
The present invention regards an automatic plant to perform continuously and with high yields on an industrial scale, the drying and single-phase firing operations on ceramic tiles used for wall-lining and floor-lining.- By the term "single-phase firing" it is meant a process already known, by means of which the semifinished products comprising planar bodies of suitable composition pressed to their final geometrical and flatted shape, covered on one of their faces with a suitable glazing composition or glaze, are heat treated, so as to proceed in a single step to the firing as well as ceramic becoming of the composition of the tile body and glazing of the surface layer of the glaze.
The improved plant according to the invention particularly comprises an assembly of the type commonly called tunnel kiln, along the length of which the semifinished products to be treated travel, and is associated with suitable heat sources, so as to establish, in the environment defined by the tunnel or gallery of the kiln, the thermal conditions necessary for the development and completion of firing of the tile body as well as of the surface layer of the glaze.
B. The Prior Art
The technology of the production of these ceramic tiles, as well as operation of the tunnel-kilns for firing of same, is well known in the art and does not require any further explanation.